Former Angel Finds Baseball Salvation at Dana Hills

Dana Hills is not off to a great start this season at 5-8-1. However, the Dolphins have great hope for the future because their pitching staff has been touched by an Angel.

Former Angel right-hander Mike Witt is in his second season as the school’s pitching coach, and the arrangement is working well for both parties. Dana Hills pitchers are learning from one of the top major league players of the 1980s, and Witt--who has been out of professional baseball since 1993--is rediscovering his joy for the game through his young players’ eyes.

“Coaching has been easier than I thought it would be,” said Witt, 36, taking a break from the team’s practice. “I really wasn’t doing too much--playing a lot of golf and spending time with the kids. When they asked me if I’d mind coming out and helping out, I thought, ‘What the heck, I might as well do something along these lines.’ ”

Witt was approached last year by Donn Munsell, then the Dolphins’ coach and now an assistant at Laguna Beach. Munsell said he saw Witt helping out with the Dana Hills basketball team. Witt was a standout baseball and basketball player at Servite High in 1975-78.

“He was very receptive and did a great job,” Munsell said. “Considering where he’s come from and where he’s been, he got the kids’ respect and attention quickly.”

Next to working with the players, the best part of the job for Witt is the location of Dana Hills, which he said is a five-minute bicycle ride from his home.

“This is ideal,” Witt said. “If this were any other high school I’d be here, because it’s close by. It matters now that it’s Dana Hills because I’ve become attached to it.”

Witt said he doesn’t try to force his opinions or ideas on the players, even when they’re receptive to his every suggestion.

“I think you learn better when you do it yourself,” he said. “You learn what your arm can do, and what the ball will do when you throw it. So I let them feel their way through and help where I can. But they need to find out what doesn’t work before they find out what does.

“My thing is making sure they don’t hurt their arms when they pitch. Without good [form], you can hurt your arm. Then, during the process of a game, I try to show what kind of thinking should be going on as they pitch.”

One of Witt’s biggest boosters among the players is junior right-hander Sean Fluent, who is off to a 4-1 start.

“It’s awesome having an ex-pro as a pitching coach,” Fluent said. “But he’s the most down-to-earth guy I’ve met. It’s like talking to a big brother. He doesn’t tell you what to do, but he helps you do whatever you feel comfortable with.”

Many of the Dana Hills players last season didn’t realize the depth of Witt’s experiences, both good and bad, “except for a couple of die-hard Angels fans,” Witt said. “But the last time I was in the game most of them were about 12 years old, so I wasn’t surprised they didn’t know that much about me.”

But Witt has a strong local history, nonetheless.

After graduating from Servite and then playing at Cypress College, Witt was selected by the Angels in the fourth round of the 1978 free-agent draft.

He would reach the majors in 1981 and have his breakthrough season in 1984, when he went 15-11. That started a four-year stretch during which Witt won at least 15 games each year. His best season with the Angels was in 1986, when he was 18-10 and the Angels won Western Division. He finished third in the Cy Young balloting behind Boston’s Roger Clemens and Milwaukee’s Ted Higuera.

Witt pitched the Angels to within one out of the World Series that season. The Angels took a three-to-one games lead into the fifth game of the American League championship series with Boston. Witt had a 4-1 lead and two outs when he gave up a two-run homer, and was taken out by Manager Gene Mauch. But the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, the Red Sox won in extra innings and eventually took the series in seven games.

During his Angel career, Witt would have his hand in two no-hitters. He pitched the 13th perfect game in major league history, defeating the Texas Rangers, 1-0, on the final day of the 1984 season, and he combined with Mark Langston to no-hit Seattle, 1-0, in the third game of the 1990 season.

Witt is third all-time in Angel wins (109), starts (272), strikeouts (1,283), complete games (70) and innings pitched (1,965 1/3), and second in games appeared in as a pitcher (314).

In 1990, he was traded to the Yankees for Dave Winfield. Witt’s New York career never had a chance to bloom. In his first season he finished 5-9, but a sore elbow forced him to miss 55 games. In 1991, he could not start the season until June because of continued elbow problems and after two starts, Witt tore a tendon in the injured elbow that required surgery. He was lost for the season.

He spent the 1992 season in the minors, rehabilitating. Witt tried to come back in 1993, when he appeared in nine games, going 3-2, but ended up hurting his right shoulder.

“I had already been out two years rehabing the elbow, and [Angel team physician] Dr. [Lewis] Yokum told me I would need another reconstructive type surgery,” Witt said. “That would have been another two years of rehab; I said, ‘I think I’ve had enough.’ ”

Now that he is coaching, Witt realizes he still has something to offer. His Dana Hills charges are more than willing to listen.

“He has been quite comfortable in sharing his knowledge,” Dolphin Coach Bob Canary said. “I could see that during our American Legion season this summer. Mike could see some optimism in the kids’ attitudes. It was something he could work with.

“I’d love to keep him around a long time, but I don’t know his immediate future. He’s rooted here [in Dana Point] with his family, and he is a very strong family man. I hope he’ll stick around and help us have some good years.”

Witt does miss playing the game. He said he watches major league baseball every chance he gets on television and he gets wistful whenever he sees former teammates Mark Langston and Chuck Finley take the mound.

“I’ll tell myself, ‘I can still go out there,’ but I know I can’t,” Witt said, smiling. “I can at least throw batting practice. But I couldn’t get out Frank Thomas and Albert Belle; I know that.”

If he could go back, Witt said he would try to enjoy the major league experience more this time.

“I was so intent on pitching well every fifth day, and once the game I pitched was over, I was already locking myself into the next one,” he said. “I look back now and realize I should have enjoyed it more than I did. But I also don’t know if I would have been as successful as I was if I had been one of those guys who just enjoyed being there.

“I had to work, to grind things out. I relate it to a pro golfer that grinds it out and only shoots a 75. I just ground out my career, and I went at it a little too hard. If I had been more relaxed, maybe I would have done a little better. But who knows?”

Witt enjoys his coaching duties but admits he’s unsure what other directions he wants his life to take. He said he doesn’t have an interest in coaching in pro ball right now because the travel would take him away from his family. “It would have to be a situation like with the [Mission Viejo] Vigilantes,” he said. He did get a call from Saddleback College to see if he might like to work there, but for the time being Witt wants to stay at Dana Hills.

“I’m just looking for a niche I can fall into,” he said. “I take care of the investments I’ve made, but I haven’t gotten into any businesses.

“I’ve had tons of people from my son’s Little League ask if I’d give pitching lessons. I’ve said no, but that is an area to get into if I want to follow this up. It would be a natural. But I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”